HINGHAM – A Hingham man with a 10-page criminal record and a history of drunken driving was back in court Wednesday after he crashed into at least two parked cars in a busy grocery store lot while on drugs, police say.

John Joseph Coveney, 59, was arrested shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday and charged with fourth-offense driving under the influence of drugs, leaving the scene of a crash with property damage, driving without a license, driving a car without the owner’s permission, driving to endanger and misusing a handicap parking permit. Judge Francis Marini set bail at $5,000 cash and ordered Coveney to return to court Aug. 12.

Assistant District Attorney Corey Martin said several people called 911 shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday and reported that someone was driving erratically through the parking lot of the Stop & Shop on Route 3A and had crashed into at least two cars. Witnesses told police that the driver had stopped and given registration papers to the owner of one of the cars that had been hit, but then left without retrieving the papers or picking up a license plate that had fallen off in one of the crashes, Martin said.

Police traced the registration handed over by the driver to a woman who lives in a condominium in the Hingham Shipyard on the other side of Route 3A, said Sgt. Steven Dearth. Coveney came down after officers rang the condo and admitted to driving his girlfriend’s car, though he didn’t appear to understand why he was in trouble, Dearth said.

Dearth said Coveney’s eyes were drooping, his speech was slow and he nodded off repeatedly while talking with officers, sitting in the back of a police cruiser and being booked at the police station.

Dearth said police added the drug possession charge to their criminal complaint against Coveney after staff using a metal detector at the Plymouth County jail found several clonazepam pills inside a small metal container tucked between his legs.

Martin asked Judge Marini to set bail at $20,000, citing what she said was a 10-page criminal record that she said included three drunken driving cases dating back to 1985. But defense attorney Lee Darst asked for a low bail amount, noting that most of his offenses were at least a decade old and that he had rarely missed court dates in the past.

Contact Neal Simpson at nesimpson@ledger.com or follow him on Twitter @NSimpson_Ledger.